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Undesirable Weight Loss

Obesity is a common cause of a variety of health problems including high blood pressure and heart disease. Many turn to diet pills, exercise, dieting and other weight loss remedies in order to lose weight for health or other cosmetic reasons. However, there are some who use weight loss strategies that can actually be harmful to their health. Not only are these weight loss methods harmful, but they can also be very ineffective in permanently keeping weight off. The following weight loss methods are undesirable.

  1. Anorexia

    • Anorexia is an eating disorder with a psychological component to it. Some anorexics believe that they are overweight when they are instead severely underweight. Anorexics often skip meals, exercise excessively and obsess over their weight.

    Bulimia

    • Bulimia is the practice of vomiting up food in order to reduce the number of calories that are consumed, with the hope of losing weight. Bulimics want to be able to eat without gaining weight. However, excessive vomiting can damage the esophagus and the teeth. Excessive vomiting can also cause digestive problems as it damages the stomach muscles.

    Crash Dieting

    • Some individuals take healthy weight loss to an extreme. Weight loss at the rate of three pounds every two weeks is healthy. However, some choose to dramatically reduce their calorie intake while exercising excessively. The body often does not have time to adjust to the rapid weight loss. Crash diets can cause severe hunger, depression, exhaustion, heart disease, nerve problems and muscle problems. Crash dieting can also cause the kidneys, heart and liver to fail.

    Yo-Yo

    • Yo-yo dieting occurs when a dieter successfully achieves the desired weight, abandons the diet and exercise regimen, and regains weight. Yo-yo dieting usually occurs as a result of a loss in self-motivation or a lack of understanding of how the metabolism works. This can result in the same health problems that result from crash dieting.

    Fasting

    • Fasting for a day has minimal or no health problems. But some choose to fast for several days in order to lose weight. Those who stop drinking fluids altogether will become dangerously dehydrated in two days or less. Fortunately, some fasters drink water in order to remain hydrated. Some fasters drink vegetable juice in order to minimize the effects of malnutrition. But vegetable juice does not always provide all of the nutrients needed.

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